One-day Tour to the Katskhi Pillar and Chiatura1 Day | Katskhi pillar, Chiatura

If you wish to explore off the beaten path sights, this one day tour to Katskhi pillar and Chiatura from Tbilisi might be interesting. You will visit a monastery on 40 m high hill, where monk Maxime has been living in solitude for 25 years. The Katskhi pillar will gift you breathtaking views, and you will feel silence of this place. Plunge into the Soviet time visiting Chiatura. Look around the town riding communism-era cable cars.

Tour itinerary:

At 08:00, our driver and guide will meet you at your hotel/place in Tbilisi. Drive to Katskhi pillar. Stunning and mysterious, this 40-meter high natural limestone monolith towers over the gorge of the Karshuna River. On top of the pillar, there is a monastery and reconstructed 8th century church probably built by the Stylite. There is only one inhabitant: monk Maxime has been living in the monastery for 25 years in solitude and silence.
Continue to Chiatura, industrial town founded in 1879. In Soviet Georgia, the town was a center of manganese mining. Present Chiatura attracts visitors who are interested in Soviet time industrial left-overs. To feel the past, you can ride communism-era cable cars still used by locals as means of transport. This transport system has dozen of operating ropeway lines for passengers and two cargo lines for transporting manganese. Total length of the cable ways exceeds 6,000 meters.
Located between steep valleys and deep gorges Chiatura will leave an unforgettable impression with anyone visiting this off the beaten track Georgian destination.
Drive back to Tbilisi. Drop off at your hotel/place.